"F#$k the Yankees, Boo-Boo."

Bad enough I had to work part of Saturday, but I spent those hours with a Yankees-loving co-worker.

“Get used to seeing us in first place,” he chortled. “We’ll be there for the duration.”

The duration of what? The weekend? The next week?

Look, the Yankees were one game away from finishing us off in the 2004 ALCS, and they failed. That was the turning point for me. From that moment on, anything’s possible, nothing’s a given, and the Yankees are really no more threatening to me than that annoying, overweight cousin who shows up at family picnics to show off the shiny new calculator watch strapped to his pudgy wrist.

In response, I simply referred my colleague to that quote from The Usual Suspects. “What I know now, was that these men would never break, never lie down, never bend over for anybody. Anybody.”

That’s how I feel about the 2009 edition of the hometown team. So there you have it.

Jon Lester’s on the hill at 1:07pm (thanks to the recent Canadian law prohibiting any sporting events from taking place before six minutes past the hour). See you there.